Feeling Bitter-sweet: Schneider to Buy APC

It is announced today that Schneider is buying American Power Conversion (APC) for $6.1 billion in cash. APC's price spiked 25% to $29.76.

Ironically this is the third company that I "discovered" within last six months but didn't buy! APC's price was about $17 at the time.

The other two stocks that I discovered were Internet Security Systems (ISSX), which was bought by IBM for $1.3 billion in August, and ICOS Corp (ICOS), bought by Eli Lilly for $2.1 billion a couple of weeks ago.

The average gain from the discovery date to buy-out date would have been about 57%.

I missed the gain and I am sure that screening stocks cannot be this easy, but I am still happy that my system actually worked. Of the more or less ten companies that I "discovered", three have been acquired now and other two are potential take-over targets (as acknowledged by management). Only two have lower prices since then.